Tag Archives: games

Behind the curtain, Shiny, The Gaming Adventure

Go Ask Alice, When She’s 10 Feet Tall

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So, here we were on our Gaming Adventure, and along came Alice: Madness Returns. I have not played the first Alice game, but this was next on my list, and that was the deal!

Just going to say, first off, that this game was VERY much outside my wheelhouse and/or comfort zone. I’ve not played anything like this that I can remember – puzzles and jumping and dodging and timing and dying… DYING so many times! I do not play “souls” games or “roguelike” games – I do not have the patience or tenacity for them! That being said, this game is so beautiful, darkly humorous, twisted, and a little bit silly (looking at YOU, Rabbit, and those SILLY teapots!) that the endless dying and “let’s try that again” made it fun/interesting enough for me to keep going to the end.

The story is also dark, twisted, but fascinating, and I kept going to learn more about poor Alice’s past. The memories were bittersweet, sad, and showed a broken and very interesting arc for young Alice. I am not sure how many of them were recalls to the previous game, but it didn’t matter, as the story was so well told that I could keep up easily with the story in this game.

The covering of mental health issues, deeply disturbing moments, and overall strangeness made the game quite complex, despite the apparently first-look appearance of “just another puzzle game” which you may think when you watch a few minutes of game play.

It’s not a “new game” by any means, and the graphics are not AAA game level, but they are gorgeous enough to make the game just beautiful to look at while you dodge hot tea, black blobs, and strange shadows with doll heads. I was thoroughly entranced and entertained.

I won’t show too many more shots from the game, as they definitely give spoilers, and that’s something I try not to do in these Gaming Adventure reviews.

I will say, though, that if you go into this game with no knowledge of the previous game, and an open mind, you will thoroughly enjoy it.

I certainly did!

And the whole time I played, I had Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” going around in my head, often humming it aloud.

Go ask Alice… when she’s 10 feet tall!

Behind the curtain, information, life, Shiny, The Gaming Adventure

Around The World In “80 Days”

I played this game a few months ago when I first got it (part of a Humble Bundle, if I remember correctly, as it’s not something I would normally buy for myself) but I made to the other side of Russia and that’s where I got stuck. I didn’t have enough money to pay for the ship across the ocean to the Americas, and I didn’t have the time left to go up and across to Alaska.

I learned from my mistakes, and this time I avoided Russia completely until ending up in Vladivostok to take a ship from there. I went through the Middle East, India, China, and Japan instead. I crossed the USA in record time, and before I knew it… I was back in London where I started with 3 days to spare!

Yes, you heard that right! I made it around the world in 77 days! I also didn’t run out of money, even after being hijacked by Jesse James himself! *flex*

The possibilities of this game are endless, truly. The story is complex and there are so many choices and paths and ways to get where you need to go that it can be a little overwhelming sometimes! This time around, I took the “speak to the little people” route – I spoke to the deckhands and the pilots, and the engineers, and the cooks, and the maids, and the merchants, and the sailors, and the soldiers. I learned their stories, and Jean Passepartout (your character in the game – the trusted valet of Phileas Fogg) became a well-travelled, kind, compassionate man, with a surprising little tidbit and secret in New Orleans. Play it to find out for yourself! Although, with the character building and storylines of this game, you may actually arrive in New Orleans with a completely different palette of tricks and traits which will give you a completely different story in the city! Isn’t that incredible?

Apparently, this game won many awards, and I can see why.

Merci beaucoup, au revoir, and I’ll be seein’ you, “80 Days,” thanks for the dates and the salty crackers.

These are the only screenshots I took – when I completed the game – as I was actually so intently focused on reading and planning and shuffling things around in my suitcase, that I forgot to take any while I was playing!

(PS – it is currently available on GOG.com for a mere $2.49 in their Summer sale) (No, I don’t get anything for saying that)

animals, life, memories, photography, relationships

Day Three and the secret pond

It started out way too early. It was Odin’s final “test night” in the crate and he went in willingly enough, but around 3am he got very restless and I _think_ he was whining, but I don’t really know (my ears ring when the pressure changes and sometimes I can’t hear things at certain wavelengths :/ thanks, head injury) so I thought maybe he needed to to poop as the last time he went was much earlier in the day, around lunch time. So I very tiredly got up, got G and Az’s collars on in case they wanted to go down and got the little man out of his den and took him down. He peed, and we wandered around for about 10 minutes, but apparently he didn’t need to… so then I went back up, got Azzie, took her down… then Gina… and then came back to bed and put him back in his crate. I wasn’t willing to take the chance just yet, because he’d not pooped. He went in just fine, with a big sigh though.

We all went back to bed for an hour or so and then I definitely heard him whining, and he was very restless. This was around 0600. Which I suppose is the “normal” time for him to go to the loo (if he was still back where my husband found him, that would be when he would be taken outside) and this time he DID go! I made a BIG fuss and gave him a treat and fussed him some more after I picked it up.

Gina and Azzie were WAY too tired to go down again – they stayed upstairs and Gina didn’t even move from my bed. 🙂

Now, I left him out of his crate and he settled down with a big happy waggy body and tail thump, on Gina’s bed. I was still “alert” for anything weird, but I managed to doze a little bit and the girls snored their heads off in the bedroom with me. Ods didn’t even move from the bed 🙂

So tonight is the night… he can stay out of his crate – as long as he poops in the evening before bed.

We’re still working on the trust. It’s only day three of the adventure.

This morning’s walk! WOW! What a GREAT one!

The dogs STINK, they are dirty, muddy and happy and very tired 🙂

DSCN1732 DSCN1735 DSCN1738 DSCN1740 DSCN1742              DSCN1840 DSCN1850 DSCN1857 DSCN1858
DSCN1747DSCN1751DSCN1757DSCN1766DSCN1789DSCN1790DSCN1804DSCN1805DSCN1809DSCN1818DSCN1837DSCN1762DSCN1838I decided to give the whole traveling in the car together thing a try this morning – daring, I know. Didn’t QUITE work out the way I wanted, but it worked. On the way to the secret pond, G and Az took up the whole back seat, as they like to, so poor Odin had to sit in the back/boot – don’t worry the top is off, so he could sit up and look out (which he did a few times – but he can’t sit up properly yet because of his back leg) and he was fine.
On the way back home, Odin hopped in after Azzie (she was in her usual spot behind me) and then lay down, because that’s what he does. He doesn’t understand sitting up with his head out the window… yet.
So I asked Gina to hop in the front on the passenger seat. She did and then climbed across to my side, but I managed to get her back on the passenger side and in a comfortable sitting position. She likes to lie down on the way home though, so she wasn’t QUITE as happy as I would have liked. She rested her whole head and neck on the window so she could snooze.
But the walk! The walk was AWESOME 🙂 Odin is definitely part Galgo – he wanted to RUN RUN RUN and chase Azzie all over, but his leg was too sore, so he would start running, have fun and then realise he was sore so he would come to me and whine at me. We took a lot of breaks, but had a lovely walk and he ALMOST got into the secret pond to swim 🙂 Next time, I’m sure he will! Even though he’d never been to this area before, he was very confident and happy – especially at Azzie’s side.

As you will see in the videos – he is FULL of energy and playfulness – and that makes my heart warm 🙂 I’m sure it will make my husband happy to see it as well.

He did get away from me, but didn’t run away, just chased Azzie around until they both got too tangled to carry on.

Azzie was much kinder to him and raced around a bit, and Gina played with him on numerous occasions and tried her best to get him into the pond with her 🙂

A GORGEOUS walk. I kept it short, as I didn’t want to overexert him and it was also quite warm, so I didn’t want to make the girls too hot.

 

Here are some videos – it’s hard to hold the little camera steady while being dragged off all over the place, but I did my best.

A bit of a hodgepodge, as that’s how the compression software put them together.